Judge denies Fernley lawsuit

A state district court judge denied all four of Fernley's claims in its suit against the state of Nevada seeking a greater allocation of Consolidated Tax revenues.

District Court Judge James T. Russell issued his ruling following oral arguments in 1st Judicial District Court in Carson City on Tuesday.

"He just ruled in favor of the state, even though I felt the state didn't present a very good case," Goodman said.

The city filed the lawsuit in June 2012 against the Nevada Department of Taxation and State Treasurer Kate Marshall, claiming Fernley is receiving less consolidated tax revenue than other cities of similar size and asking the court to award Fernley its "fair share" of the consolidated tax.

Goodman said the city plans to appeal the ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court, and the filing of the appeal could move forward as soon as next week.

"It's very disappointing," Mayor LeRoy Goodman said. "We thought we had a good case and compelling arguments, and the judge said no."

The legislature, in 1997, established the C-Tax, which includes such taxes as the cigarette tax, the liquor tax, real property transfer tax, supplemental city/county relief tax and vehicle privilege tax, and which is distributed to counties, cities and various special districts in the state.

The city's suit charged that despite experiencing population growth of approximately 250 percent since the C-Tax system was established, Fernley's current C-Tax distributions are not significantly different from what it received as an unincorporated town in the late 1990s.

Marshall was named in the suit because, as state treasurer, her office disburses public funds.